3/11 - Eli's surgery

Eli had his surgery on Thursday morning. Aiden stayed the night with Ms. Jackie, one of his daycare providers, the night before Eli's surgery. This allowed my dad to come to the hospital with me on Thursday morning. Even though Eli was tired and wasn't so happy I had to wake him up, he did well. We had to wait a while (about 40 min) before they actually got started with us. Eli really didn't like his ankle bracelet and kept whining "ouchie" about it. Papa tried distracting him by tickling him and it worked for a while. I then let him play on the iPad for a while but he started to get worn out from that too. Finally, a nurse or tech asked if we had been helped yet (no) and if we wanted to watch TV. Eli was instantly sold on that and he was mesmerized.

They were finally almost ready to take him back to they sent Papa to a different waiting room and made me get dressed in a hazmat type outfit to go to pre-op with Eli which is apparently a somewhat sterile environment. We had to wait back there for about 30-35. The anesthesiologists came back to meet Eli and talk to us. He really like the one dr and the dr eventually gave up his stethoscope so Eli could play with it. We eventually resorted to the iTouch to watch Finding Nemo until they came and got him. They gave him a little bit of a cocktail to make him separate easier from me. When they came to get him and wheel him to surgery, he was looking around and trying to look over the back of the bed for me and calling my name. I did see the nurse get out her iPhone and give it to him with music playing which was nice.

The surgery went well and I had to wait about 45 min although I think the surgery took just about 30 min. The took me to a special recovery room where he was waking up from the anesthesia. Last year, this part was horrible so my hopes were not high this time. He was so cute and sad laying there hooked up to the IV. It reminded me of his first few months when we did a couple stints in the hospital and he had an IV and the oxygen sensor on his foot. His recovery nurse ended up being Aiden's sunday school teacher. How amazing is that? She was great and even let my dad come back to this recovery room (there isn't supposed to be any family back there but since Eli is a minor, they let me come back) since I told her Papa was taking the place of daddy since he just deployed the day before. After his respirations got to a certain point, they allowed me to rub his back and try and start waking him up. It didn't take long and he was so out of it.

He started whining and she put the bed rail down and had me get in the bed to hold him. I did that as he adjusted to trying to be awake. They took him off the oxygen and he was doing well. We eventually got moved to the regular recovery room and they had a popcicsle waiting for him and some juice. He just wanted his capri sun I brought. In fact, he fought hard to not taste it. Papa had to hold him for a bit so I could go down to the pharmacy and get some narcotic medicine for Eli. All went well in recovery and we left after about 30 min and he drank some of his drink. He didn't enjoy having the IV taken out but he had a TV to watch so he was distracted.

He was pretty out of it for the next couple hours but wasn't sleeping. He just wanted to lay around. I tried to get him to eat yogurt or jello but he didn't really want anything. He eventually got really sick and threw up but after that, was good to go. He rested for a while and then we went to go get Aiden. Although it took him all day to eat a 1/2 container of yogurt, I thought he was doing well enough to go ahead and take off for the Ladies Retreat in Palm Beach (about 45 min away). I made scrambled eggs for dinner for the boys and Eli didn't really eat anything (neither did Aiden but that's not surprising). Eli struggled with eating and drinking for a few days but he's doing great now. He's still on antibiotics but is feeling so much better!

3/7 - Fun times before daddy deploys

Now that Aiden has two different therapies to go to, we've had to run him ragged a little and he's had to miss a few naps. This is what happens when I had to wake him from a nap early to take him to an appointment.

We got an iPad last week and I love it. So does Aiden. He loves practicing writing his letters, numbers, and doing puzzles.

There are even apps for Eli to use to color and draw. Who knows, maybe he'll even learn his colors before he is three! :)

On Saturday, we had family pictures in the morning and they went really well. I'm so excited to get them back. After that, we went by Dairy Queen because they had a monster truck there. The boys were so tired that they didn't enjoy it as much as we thought but they still thought it was pretty cool.

On Saturday afternoon, we celebrated Blaise's 2nd birthday at Gymboree. They haven't been there in a while and they had a blast.

It didn't take them long to remember that the ringing of the tambourine meant they had to pay attention and they were going to do an activity. They had a blast running around on the mat with inter tubes under each corner. Eli was falling all over the place (I'm hoping it was usually on purpose).

Daddy had fun wrestling with Eli.

Eli only participated in half the activities but Aiden had fun doing all them. Eli just wanted to hang out and run around with daddy.

Eli did like sitting with me for a little music time. He hadn't been feeling well most of the week but I took him tot he dr on Friday morning and they said his ears were pretty clear so he was ok. (I'll update you on more of that later).

This is a group shot of everyone right before parachute time. I can't believe Stephanie got that many kids to sit and stay on the parachute.

Here is a shot of all the adults sitting on the parachute to help make a giant bubble. The kids loved it.

After lots of playing, it was time for some cupcakes and capri suns. I'm glad Aiden didn't have a choice today about cupcakes or cake (look back to a blog a few weeks ago if you don't know what I'm talking about).

Aiden was trying to be careful not to get his hands or face dirty but that doesn't happen when you have a chocolate cupcake. I was SO SO impressed he wore the hat for a little bit. It was the peer pressure I think.

Eli doesn't conform to peer pressure. He has no hat on! He only ate the icing on the cupcake so Brad was forced to help him out and eat his cupcake. This should have been another sign to us that Eli wasn't doing so well. The kid is an eating machine!

Aiden was really excited for Blaise to open the present we got him. I don't think he gets the whole present thing yet because he wanted to go to Blaise's house so he could play with the present. He cracks me up.

 As cheesy at it sounds, we've just been trying to savor every moment we have as a family.

I got a phone call Monday afternoon that they wanted to move Eli's surgery (to have his ear tube replaced and adnoids out) which was supposed to be on March 21 to this Thursday. We did pre-op yesterday and it took about 4 hrs (which I wasn't planning on). We also found out Eli has a massive ear infection and the dr put him back on Augmentin (he was off of it for just a week between courses) and motrin which he's not really supposed to have before surgery. The dr said it was okay and Eli needed it for pain management and they would be ready to deal with any side effects the motrin will have on his blood clotting during the surgery. I'm thankful for Eli and his relief that the surgery is moved up but it was just bad timing sort of. Brad had to bring Eli home for lunch and a nap and then I took Aiden to speech and occupational therapy. I came home and Brad went back to base to get Eli's medicine because I didn't have the 1.5 hrs it took to wait for the prescription earlier. It was a crazy day. Here are Brad and the boys enjoying some dinner together.

Here is the last picture Brad took with the boys. Our friend from church, Raechel, came over to our house last night at 7:00pm and watched the boys. Brad wanted to put them to bed for a final time but our schedule was so off yesterday. He gave them big hugs and then we took a family picture.

This one turned out much better than we one we took before the last deployment. Eli was being silly and Aiden hasn't figured out that he's supposed to look at the camera when someone is taking a picture. Raechel put them to bed and Brad and I were supposed to go out for ice cream. He took me by the verizon store and we got me the new iPhone4G (which is awesome) and then we got ice cream. We then went home and I watched Brad pack (which is so painful) and then eventually left the room and watched TV because I hate watching him pack. He left at 6:30am and Aiden was even able to give daddy a hug bye because he was awake. I gave Brad a long hug bye and then our neighbor took him to base. It's been an emotional day. I need to go pick Eli up from daycare now. Aiden is staying the night with Ms. Jackie and she will bring him back tomorrow to daycare so I can deal with Eli. My dad is coming in to town tonight because he's going to watch the boys over the weekend while I go to the Ladies Retreat with church. That all hinges on Eli's surgery (which happens at 7:00am tomorrow) to be successful and that he has a fast recovery. Please keep all the of the Hoyt Family in your prayers for the next couple days. Aiden already told me today on the way to bible study that he misses daddy.

2/27 - Lowe's, the park, & Aiden with technology

On Friday, Ms. Jackie (the 2-yr old teach at Aiden and Eli's daycare) took them home from daycare and kept them over night. UF was competing against GA in a gymnastics meet and I wanted to make sure while we were living in Florida, that I actually got to go to a meet again. I got to see a few old teammates which was fun. I called Jackie at 6:45pm to see how things were going. She told me the boys had a great time at the park, then they ate McDonald's for dinner, and then they just wandered around on her farm a while and got really dirty. She even gave them a bath.  I told her I was shocked that Aiden let her give him a bath and that he even got dirty enough to need one. He got all kinds of dirty exploring around her house and really enjoyed feeding her horse. Brad and I had a great date and got to see some great gymnastics. 

On Saturday morning, we picked up the boys at 9:15am. We didn't get back home until about midnight so it was very good that we didn't have to pick up the boys until around 9:00am. When we got to Ms. Jackie's, she had all their stuff ready. The boys were busy playing in the living room. They were glad to see us and said they had a great time. They want to go back to Ms. Jackie's but have us go with them and feed the horses. We went to Lowe's Build and Grow Workshop when we left Jackie's house. It was the first time we have gone to Lowe's (we love Home Depot on the first saturday of the month). The boys liked getting different aprons and they were excited to build a car.

Here is Eli helping daddy pound the nails in the bottom of the car.

I was working with Aiden and made him try to hit the nail as well. He did it two or three times and then said he "wasn't strong enough; mommy finish."

They were really happy to hear (literally) that the car made noises when you pushed a button on top. Although it looks like Eli is using his car as a phone, he's actually listening to the speaker on the underside of the car.

Brad tried to take a picture of all of us but Aiden was too busy listening to his car to stop and smile for the camera.

The boys took awesome naps. Ms. Jackie said the little stinkers (she didn't call them stinkers) even woke up a little before 7am so we knew they would be exhausted. The fell right asleep and slept for 2.5 hrs. After they woke up, we went to a local park about 20 min away from us. I didn't realize Brad had never been to this park before and he enjoyed it. Brad and Aiden played chase and hide-and-go-seek for a long time. Eli, as you can see below, was serving me up so food. The wood chips were carrot sticks and apple slices.

I have a video of this that I took on my camera (and need to figure out how to put it on the blog) but Eli was driving on the cars and Brad acted like Eli had just hit him. Eli would crack up laughing and I must admit I was laughing because Eli was laughing so hard.

Here is Brad and Aiden working on the digger. The handles are so heavy that Aiden can't lift them up by himself. He decided he would make Brad do all the work and he would just tell Brad what to do. Pretty smart boy!

We stayed at the playground so long that I wasn't going to have time to make dinner so we went to IHOP (where kids eat free from 4-7pm everyday). It was taking a very long time to get our food so I asked Brad to get his phone out and let Aiden play with the flashcards that he installed on there a long time ago. Brad has an Android-based phone and it has a touch screen. It was Aiden's first time playing with it. He had so much fun tapping the screen to make the next card appear. We even got Eli to take turn with Aiden. If Eli would say, or at least try to, the name of the object, he got to tap the screen. Brad just got a new iTouch earlier in the week so he gave mine (I got it free a few yrs ago when I bought my mac) back to me. I loaded it up with kid apps and decided I would carry it for when we had long waits again.

We went to church on Sunday morning as usual. Here is Brad playing with the boys in the afternoon. They were playing Candyland but Aiden didn't want to play by the rules so Brad wouldn't play with him. He got really upset that Brad wanted to play by the rules. Aiden decided to wear his new Lowe's apron to AWANA on Sunday night. We found at the end of AWANA that next week is Camo week. Aiden is already so excited and he has his entire outfit picked out (including socks) but told me yesterday "I wish I could have camo underwear." The kid cracks me up.

This morning I let Aiden play on my computer some. He really enjoys to be mentally challenged/stimulated so I wanted to see how he would react to the computer. I also thought that using a mouse would be good for his motor skills. He was getting the hang of it and really enjoyed it. After taking Eli to daycare at 11am, Aiden and I had a date at chick-fil-a by his therapy (it has a bigger play area than the one closer to us). We ate, he tried to play but said it was "too loud" in the play room and wanted to "wait until the noisy kids leave." He absolutely cracks me up at times. I told him I had my iTouch and put some games on it for him. I showed him how to play a memory game and then he also played a matching number game, and tracing some of the alphabet. He acted like he had been using the thing for months. It was ironic because we went to therapy and he used in the iPad in therapy for the first time. He dragged these shapes into the correct spaces like he had been playing that game for months. It was amazing. Ms. Lisa also had some cool writing apps. Needless to say, I see an iPad in our very near future. He was able to use a special pen and could practice his writing on the iPad and actually enjoyed doing it. At home, when I try to work with him on writing (most other things he will do willingly), he says no and won't do anything. I even try and bribe him with special play time, a piece of candy, etc and he still won't trace/write letters for me.

Eli didn't get much of a nap at daycare and Aiden got no nap so they were a handful this afternoon. After a certain amount of fighting on the train table, I kicked them off. Aiden asked to build a new track and I said yes but if I heard any arguing, I was putting it back in the box. The little engineer built a pretty cool track in about 5 minutes. He has a 3-way switch on the far side an a 2-way switch on the side in front of Aiden. There were lots of places for the boys to play on the track so they stopped arguing thankfully. We also made muffins this afternoon. Aiden stirred the batter for about 10 seconds and then told me "my hand is tired." When daddy came home at 5pm, Aiden runs to him and tells him we made muffins today.

 I let the boys have special snack time in the living room in chairs so they could skype with Nana.

The other fun thing is that I got my new blog book in the mail today. It's the thickest one yet!! I love that I have these books to document our family growing and to see all the pictures.

Finally, Brad got his written orders today for Air Force War College in Alabama. We are relieved about this. Brad's orders even state that he is due to check-out at the end of June which would be totally awesome. However, I'm gonna still expect Brad back in July and will miss our birthdays as usual. I think he's only been around 2 times out of the 5 yrs and this would be 6 yrs. Whatever happens is God's plan!